Final Declarations
by indigofrog
Summary: When Angel tells Spike to enjoy his last day, Spike decides that it is finally time to talk to the woman he loves, tell her he is alive and declare his true feelings. Fluffy, Spuffy threeshot.
1. Chapter 1

**Just a fluffy Spuffy idea I had while watching Angel: Not Fade Away. I think Spike would have also spent part of his last day thinking of the slayer he loves.**

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Spike took a deep breath, the words of his poem still echoing through his ears and the applause that followed.

He was outside the bar now. The phone box he stood in was filled with graffiti and smelt of beer, puke and pee. Money from the machine littered the floor from when he had smashed it open to get enough to make a call.

The phone had been sitting in his hand for nearly five minutes but he couldn't bring himself to dial the number. Her number was engrained into his memory from the countless times he had spent staring at it on Angel's computer screen, debating whether or not to phone.

What should he say? _Hi Buffy, it's Spike. Guess what, I'm not dead!_

It was times like this that he wished he had told her earlier, when he had first come back. Or after Andrew had found out. Or if he had seen her in Rome.

Maybe then things would be different. But they weren't. As far as the woman he loved was concerned, Spike had burned up the day Sunnydale had been destroyed.

Did she cry? Andrew said she was upset but then, Andrew himself was pretty overwhelmed.

But she must have been at least a little sad, even if she only felt the loss of a friend, or an acquaintance.

How long did she grieve? How long did she wait until she hooked up with the Immortal? Spike liked to think it was at least a month or two.

Maybe it was a bad idea to call. Buffy had moved on, got a new life, without him. It wasn't fair to interrupt that or ruin it. For all he knew, he could be dead this time tomorrow. He couldn't tell her he was 'alive' and then die again so soon. He wouldn't let her grieve again.

However, he couldn't bear to die without her knowing that he still loves her, that he still thought about her every minute of everyday, that he would do anything for just one more day with her.

For just one more kiss.

Buffy had to know. And if Spike didn't tell her now, he might never have the chance.

Before he could change his mind, Spike's fingers punched the number into the phone and lifted it to his ear.

 _Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep._

"Hello?" Her voice hadn't changed. It was still as calming as ever, yet filled with a toughness unlike any other.

The vampire's mouth opened but no sound came out, like a gaping fish.

"Hello?" The slayer asked again.

"Hello, love," Spike whispered, his voice finally finding the courage to work.

On the other end of the line there was a short, sharp intake of breath. Then silence.

"Buffy? Are you there? Buffy?"

"Spike?" she asked. She sounded nervous, as though if she said his name and it wasn't him, the whole world would come crashing down.

"It's me, love."

"But...but you died. How..? You were incinerated. I saw it happen," she stuttered in disbelief.

"And I felt it. But someone wouldn't let me stay dead," Spike explained.

Buffy paused. "When? When were you...?"

"Resurrected?" Spike finished. "19 days after Sunnydale."

"What!" Buffy yelled down the phone. "You've been alive for months and you didn't tell me!"

"Buffy, I wanted to, I just-"

"How could you Spike? When I died, you wanted me back more than anything. Don't you think I feel...felt the same?"

"I...I didn't think about it that way," Spike said quietly. "I'm sorry." Spike paused, hating himself for letting her grieve for so long when he could have taken that pain away. "How long have I been gone?"

"154 days yesterday. 155 days today...except-"

"Except today doesn't count?" Spike suggested, remembering their conversation almost three years ago, when it was Buffy who had come back from the dead.

"No, the last 125 days haven't counted!" She snapped.

Spike sighed, regretting interrupting Buffy's new life. "I'm so sorry, I just didn't know how to tell you. I thought 'Hi, Buffy, I'm alive' would be a bit of a shock."

He could feel Buffy smile at the other end of the line. "I guess that would have been hard."

"I never stopped thinking about you, always asking Angel how you were and-"

"Angel knows you were resurrected?"

Spike grinned, realising that he'd got the pounce into trouble. "Yeah, I appeared in his office, along with that bloody amulet." He stopped, wondering what else to tell her and what to skip. He didn't know how long he had until all manner of demons were attacking them. "We came to look for you, you know. In Rome, Angel and I had some other business but you...um...you were busy with your new boyfriend."

"My new..? Right, actually, that's a long story but...it isn't serious."

"Isn't it?"

"Not at all. Actually, now I've settled in Scotland at the moment."

"Oh...well, we tried to talk to you but we got caught up in something else," garbled Spike, attempting to hide his delight. "I'd planned everyhing, how to tell you what happened but..." He trailed off.

"So why now?" the slayer asked, "Why tell me now?"

Sighing, Spike switched the phone to his other hand and rested his chin on his left. "Maybe you heard but...some stuff is about to go down in LA and...I don't know if I'll survive." Spike took another unnecessary deep breath. "I wanted you to know that I...I..." His voice caught in his throat and his hand swiped at a tear rolling down his cheek.

"Spike?" Buffy asked tentatively, "Are you-"

"I'm fine," he hastily lied. "Listen, I needed you to know that I-"

"Buffy?" Someone on the other end of the phone asked.

"Not now, Dawn!" Buffy called back.

"Is that the Niblet? She sounds older," Spike remarked.

"She's had to grow up quickly," Buffy said sadly.

"She's not the only one," the vampire reminded her.

"Buffy, we have a slight problem," Xander shouted.

Buffy's breathing sped up. "Just one moment!"

"Buffy, I needed you to know that I love you. I think I always have, even if I didn't know it. And...and I would do anything to see you again, to-"

"Buffy, please! We've got a Code 4!" Another voice roared.

Spike wished they had more time. "It sounds important, if you need to go..."

"They'll have to cope without me," Buffy insisted. "Just tell me."

Blocking out the noise from the streets around him and the shouts he could hear on Buffy's end, Spike closed his eyes. Why was this suddenly so hard? "Buffy, I love you."

"I love you too," she told him without a moment's hesitation. "And I'm not just saying that because it's what you want to hear or what you need to hear. I'm saying it because...because I do. I mean it." The tears streaming down her face were audible to Spike now too.

"Buffy-"

"Spike, I'm so sorry it took your death to realise it, but I did. Maybe you've moved on or-"

"I could never move on. I've loved you ever since I was human, even if I didn't know it. I couldn't never find the right girl and the slayers fascinated me. Perhaps I've been waiting for you for my entire existence."

"Spike, I have so much more to tell you," she told him as Willow yelled in the background: "Buffy, they've penetrated the magical defences. Kennedy and Amanda are down."

"Willow, please," Buffy begged. "I need to do this."

"Hurry up!" The whelp shrieked.

"Spike," the slayer said into the phone, "I don't care what's going on there. Please, stay safe, I need to...there's so much more to say."

"Love, if I have you to fight for, I'll do everything in my power not only to survive, but to bloody win!"

Buffy chuckled.

He was about to say farewell, possibly for the last time, but Buffy stopped.

"Phone me, on this number, this time tomorrow. Then I'll know you're alive."

"What if I just get delayed? Or if I-"

"Then try the next day, and the next and the next. I'll never stop waiting. Please, Spike. I need to know you're safe."

Roars mixed with sirens in the LA streets and Spike knew it was starting. "Buffy, love, I have to go. I love you."

"I love you too," she vowed.

"Goodbye-"

"No," Buffy ordered. "Not goodbye. It's too final."

"So what should I say?"

"Nothing. Just...tell me you love me again."

Spike smiled as another few tears trickled down his face. This time he didn't wipe them away, but let them drip onto the cold, shaking ground.

"I love you, Buffy." He whispered the words like they were final.

"I love you, Spike."

 _Beeeeeeeeeeeeep_.

She was gone again.

Spike never felt so alone.

Slamming the phone back down onto the receiver, he flung the phone box door open and swaggered out.

Big bad was back, and looking for a little hell.

Now he had something to fight for, a reason to survive. He had to be back tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that.

He would always come back until he had Buffy in his arms.

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 **I hope you liked it. Please follow, favourite and review! Next instalment will be up soon.**

 **Indigofrog**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello! I hope you enjoy the second chapter. This is the same phone call except from Buffy's point of view. Enjoy:**

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Sighing, Buffy slumped into the chair at her desk in the corner of the vast office. The new Slayer's HQ in the highlands of Scotland was more hectic than ever and even though a group of demons were trying to penetrate the outer defences, Buffy needed a break.

It was at times like this that she wished she were back in Sunnyvale. As strange as it may seem, everything was so much simpler there. She wasn't the leader of an army of slayers, just of her band of Scoobies.

She couldn't even name everyone in her army now. When people died, they died for her and she would walk among the bodies, help to bury them, say a few words in their honour. Yet she knew nothing about them, nothing about those who died protecting her.

But they weren't the first to save the world and die doing it.

That that the life of every other slayer and countless watchers, as well as every other do-gooder to tried to stop the vampires and demons. She didn't know why she had survived when Kendra and Anya and had died alongside her, doing her job. Even Angel had technically died stopping Acathla. And Spike...

 _Get a grip, Buffy. You can't turn into a crying mess now. You're over this._

Spike was dead. And it was all her fault.

Buffy had always told him she couldn't love him because he wasn't really a hero. He wanted to prove himself.

But he already had, a hundred times over.

And she hadn't realised it, until it was too late.

She hadn't realised how she felt and then when she finally told him, Spike didn't believe her.

It seems she had denied it once too often.

She rubbed her hand across her forehead and tried to force herself to focus.

 _Riiinnnggg! Riiinnnggg!_

It was the phone. Who would be phone now, at the beginning of a battle?

 _Riiinnnggg! Riiinnnggg!_

Gingerly, Buffy reached for the phone and lifted it to her ear. The ringing ceased.

"Hello?"

She was met with silence. There was an intake of breath on the other end but no words.

'Hello?" she asked again.

"Hello, love."

Buffy faltered. It sounded like...like Spike.

But it couldn't be.

Spike was...

Gone.

"Buffy? Are you there? Buffy?" he asked.

The slayer let out a breath she didn't realise she was holding. "Spike?" she said the name slowly, not wanting to break the illusion. If it wasn't him...She didn't know if she could deal with it.

"Its me, love." His voice hadn't changed. Each syllable sounded sweet; he could make the most revolting experience sound like a whirlwind ride.

Her head hurt. "But...but you died," she told him, trying not to choke on the last word. "How..? You were incinerated. I saw it happen."

"And I felt it," Spike told her. "But someone wouldn't let me stay dead."

Buffy paused, trying to sort through the abundance of thoughts and feelings racing through her body.

Spike..?

Spike was alive?

Spike was alive.

Buffy smiled and tried to work out what to say first. She settled on: "When? When were you...?"

"Resurrected?" Spike suggested for her. "19 days after Sunnydale."

19 days! He'd been alive and he...he didn't tell her?

"What! You've been alive for months and you didn't tell me!" As soon as she said it, Buffy regretted it. She hadn't meant to sound so angry but...how could he?

Didn't he realise that she had been grieving, wishing things were different, and all the time they were.

Spike was in the middle of defending himself, but Buffy couldn't bear to listen. "How could you, Spike?" She interrupted, verbalising the words as soon as they appeared in her head, no longer censoring them. "When I died, you wanted me back more than anything. Don't you think that I feel...felt the same?"

"I..." He stopped, trying to work out the best way to phrase whatever he was about to say. "I didn't think about it that way. I'm sorry." The regret in his voice was obvious. "How long have I been gone?"

"154 days yesterday," she told him, just as he had done to her, almost three years ago, "I55 days today...except-"

"Except today doesn't count?" he finished.

"No, the last 125 days haven't counted!" she snapped, unable to stop herself making a final comment.

The other end of the line sighed and for a moment Buffy thought that she had overstepped the mark. A second later, Spike spoke. "I'm so sorry, I just didn't know how to tell you. I thought 'Hi, Buffy, I'm alive' would be a bit of a shock."

Buffy smiled. "I know it must have been hard." She ordered herself not to be so harsh on him. That's what destroyed him last time.

Before she could further contemplate her mistakes, Spike spoke again. "I never stopped thinking about you, always driving Angel mad, asking how you were and-"

"Angel knows you were resurrected?" Buffy interrupted, unable to stop herself. Why didn't _he_ tell her?

Jealously.

"Yeah, I appeared in his office, along with that bloody amulet." He paused. "We came to look for you, you know. In Rome, Angel and I had some other business but you...um...you were busy with your new boyfriend."

Buffy was thrown. She hadn't been with anyone since Sunnydale. Every time she met a nice guy, he'd say something and remind her of Spike. Ridiculous as it seemed, she felt like she would be betraying him.

"My new..." That's when she remembered. One of her doubles was posted in Rome, dating some guy called...what had Andrew called him? The Immortal? For some reason, Andrew found their 'relationship' rather amusing.

But she couldn't blow 'Buffy's' cover. "Right, actually, that's a long story but...it's not serious."

"It's not?" Spike asked, suddenly perking up with interest.

"Not at all. Actually, I'm in Scotland at the moment," she smiled.

"Oh...well, we tried to talk to you but we got caught up in something else," Spike stuttered. Buffy almost felt him squirm. It was fun making him uncomfortable. "I'd planned everyhing, how to tell you what happened but..." His voice disappeared into nothing.

"So why now?" Buffy wondered aloud, "Why tell me now?" Why, after so long hiding the truth?

There was another sigh and a pause. The slayer could feel the vampire deliberating the best way to phrase his answer, "Maybe you heard but...some stuff is about to go down in LA and...I don't know if I'll survive." She was stunned into silence. Even when they destroyed the Hellmouth, she'd never heard Spike talk like this. "I wanted you to know that I...I..." The words caught in his throat.

Was he...crying?

"Spike," Buffy began cautiously, "are you-"

"I'm fine." He spoke hurriedly, urgently. "Listen I needed you to know that I-"

"Buffy." It was Dawn, calling her from the other end of the room, probably to update her on the battle.

Why did it have to be now?

"Not now, Dawn!"

"Is that the Niblet?" Spike asked, drawing the slayer's attention back to the phone. "She sounds older."

"She's had to grow up quickly," Buffy said sadly.

"She's not the only one."

Buffy smiled again. She liked it when Spike reminded her that she wasn't just 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' but also, 'Just Buffy' who's had demons of her own to contend with.

"Buffy, we have a slight problem," Xander called, trying to haul her back to a disappointing reality.

"Just one moment." Stress was taking ahold now; she could hear it in her voice.

"Buffy," his voice was worried and hasty now. In the background, she could hear sirens and screams. They didn't have long left. "I needed you to know that I... I think I always have, even if I didn't know it. And...and I would do anything to see you again, because I-"

"Buffy, please! We've got a Code 4!" Rona roared.

"It sounds important, if you need to go..." Spike's insistence was reluctant.

"They'll have to cope without me," Buffy wished they had more time. "Just tell me."

Spike was silent for what felt like an eternity before he said everything Buffy had been waiting for since the destruction of Sunnydale.

"I love you, Buffy."

Blocking out the noise from the chaotic battle around her and the roars she could hear on Spike's end, Buffy closed her eyes and replied without a moment's hesitation:

"I love you too." Suddenly, she felt the need to justify herself before he could interrupt and tell her it was a lie. "And I'm not just saying that because it's what you want to hear or what you need to hear. I'm saying it because...because I do. I mean it."

Tears poured down her face as she at last confessed the feelings that had been buried so deep for so long.

"Buffy-" Spike tried to speak again but now that she had started, Buffy's emotions were flowing, pouring out.

"Spike, I'm so sorry it took your death to realise it, but I did." The slayer could hardly breath but it didn't stop her. "Maybe you've moved on or-"

"I could never move on." Spike voice halted her mid sentence. "I've loved you ever since I was human, even if I didn't know it. I couldn't never find the right girl and the slayers fascinated me. Perhaps I've been waiting for you for my entire existence."

"Spike, I have so much more to tell you," she told him as Willow yelled in the background: "Buffy, they've penetrated the magical defences. Kennedy and Amanda are down."

"Willow, please," pleaded Buffy, but her friends were too panicked to see the desperation on her face. "I need to do this."

"Hurry up," Xander shrieked, filled with panic.

"Spike," Buffy began, knowing that their time was almost up, "I don't care what's going on there. Please, stay safe, I need to...there's so much more to say."

"Love," Spike began, making her smile with the use of his nickname for her. It felt wrong when anyone but him used that name. "If I have you to fight for, I'll do everything in my power not only to survive, but to bloody win!"

Buffy wanted to laugh through her tears, but it felt wrong under the circumstances.

Through the phone line, she could hear the 'farewell' forming on his lips. She needed something, anything, to remember. Otherwise, she might think this is all just a dream.

"Phone me," the slayer commanded, speaking in the same voice she used with her soldiers, "on this number, this time tomorrow. Then I'll know you're alive."

Spike sounded unsure. "What if I just get delayed? Or if I-"

"Then try the next day," she begged, "and the next and the next. I'll never stop waiting. Please, Spike. I need to know you're safe."

"I promise, Goldilocks."

Screams echoes around the HQ and Buffy knew it was starting. LA sounded similar.

"Buffy, love, I have to go. I love you."

"I love you too," she vowed.

"Goodbye-" Spike started.

"No," Buffy interrupted, determined that if he said it, she might never see him again. "Not goodbye. It's too final."

"So what should I say?" he asked, amazed by Buffy's strange, superstitious thoughts.

She tried to think of an answer. "Nothing. Just..." she struggled to form the words, "tell me you love me again."

"I love you, Buffy." The words still sounded final in his mouth.

A salty waterfall trickled down her cheeks as Buffy realised that she might lose him again. She couldn't bear it.

"I love you, Spike."

Buffy didn't want him to go, but if she didn't let go now, she knew she wouldn't.

Through her sobs, she hung up.

He was gone again.

Buffy never felt so alone.

The battle still raged behind her. It felt like a thousand voices were calling her but she could hardly move.

She'd lost him again.

He was so close, and yet, she had let him go.

Spike will be back, tomorrow, she reminded herself.

When Spike was around, she could be Buffy, but for now, everyone needed the slayer.

The slayer needed someone else, and he was on the other side of the world.

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 **Please R &R. I'd love to know what you think. The final chapter will be up soon.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you for all your support and reviews. Here goes, the final chapter. Will Buffy and Spike get together? Read on to find out.**

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Buffy sat in the chair by her desk in the corner of the HQ's huge, open plan office, staring at the phone in front of her, the sole item on the desk. Other slayers and trainee watchers were sitting at other computers but all gave their leader a wide berth.

Xander, Giles and Willow stood huddled in a corner at the opposite end of the room, casting worried glances at their friend.

"We've got to put a stop to this. She just sits there, everyday, waiting for that phone to ring," Willow explained.

"Which it won't," Xander pointed out, "Since she insisted we change the HQ's general number. No one has that number."

"Buffy thinks Spike does," Willow reminded them.

"Yes, except Spike is dead, not _undead_. He was burned and buried in the Hellmouth."

"You two know that, and I know that," Willow said, gesturing at Giles and Xander, then to herself. "Buffy did know that and then..."

"Then she claims to have had a phone call from him, the day LA fell. Apparently," Xander continued, his voice cynical, "he had been resurrected and wanted to declare their love before he went off to fight." He paused a moment before remembering the final detail. "But Spike would phone her as soon as he could." Xander raised his eyebrows. "Buffy has had some wacky ideas but you can't really believe this, Wil. This time she has completely wigged out!"

"Even I must admit it is rather absurd," Giles said, removing his glasses and wiping them on his tie. "I thought she was over Spike."

"Obviously not," Xander sighed, still not understanding his friend's obsession with the blond-bombshell vampire.

"Maybe she wasn't dealing with the grief as well as we thought. Perhaps we threw her back into slaying too quickly."

They all looked back at their friend. Her eyes hadn't moved from the telephone in front of her but her head now rested in her left hand, as opposed to her right.

"I think it's time for another intervention," Xander decided, striding confidentially across the room. Giles and Willow exchanged a glance before following quickly behind him.

"Buffy," he began before Willow had the chance to tell him to wait. "You need to stop this."

Startled as she was pulled out of her own mind, Buffy stared at Xander, her eyes looking straight through him. "Xander?" she questioned, puzzled.

"Buffy, you can't keep this up. Your life is wasting away before you while you sit here, looking with glassy eyes at that stupid phone waiting for a dead guy to call!"

"Xander!" Willow scolded, outraged that he would be so blunt.

It hardly mattered, Buffy just stared blankly back at them.

"What's going on?" asked Dawn, walking over with concern splattered across her face. She too had noticed her sister's obsession with the telephone, but understood her grief and tried to help her through it, hoping that one day she would just...move on.

"I'm waiting for Spike to call," Buffy said, as if it would explain everything.

Crouching down beside Buffy, Willow spoke slowly and quietly. "Buf, you know Spike is dead, don't you?"

Confused, Buffy shook her head. "No...No...H-h-he told me to wait for him to call. He has to call. He must," she insisted. "He promised."

"Spike died, Buffy."

"But then he came back," the slayer insisted, "in LA. He was resurrected and was working with Angel."

"Buffy," said Giles gently, "if that were true, why didn't he contact us? Why did he only call you just as LA fell."

"Because he was scared," Buffy cried. "Scared of that I'd reject him, of what to say. He thought I'd moved on."

"Buffy," Willow tried again, glancing at the crowd of slayers and watchers which had formed around them, "No one is going to call. LA had been cut off for months and Spike is gone."

"NO! No, he's not," the slayer sobbed, jumping to her feet. Willow and the others took a step away. "He is alive and he will phone."

Removing his glasses and wiping them again, Giles attempted another approach. "I know you and Spike had a connection, Buffy, but he would want you to move on with your life. You were a great team but-"

"I love him." Buffy spoke in a whisper as more tears rolled down her face. "I love him," she said more confidently, "And Spike loves me and he _will_ call."

"For God's sake," Xander muttered, her last words tipping him over the edge. "Spike is dead!" Xander yelled in Buffy's face, his hands tightly gripping her shoulders and shaking her vigorously. "No one is going to call that bloody phone!"

There was a moment of silence as everyone realised what Xander had said. More tears dripped down Buffy's face.

 _Riiinnnggg! Riiinnnggg!_

Everyone's necks twisted towards the ringing phone.

 _Riiinnnggg! Riiinnnggg!_

They looked around, wondering who will pick up the phone. Now that it had happened at last, Buffy wasn't sure how to react. Maybe this was a dream; the phone rang all the time in her dreams.

Seeing that no one else was going to, Dawn leaned over a bewildered Buffy and picked up the phone. She lifted it to her ear. "Hello?"

"Niblet?"

Dawn gasped. Unable to speak, she simply handed the phone to Buffy.

"Niblet?" the phone asked. "Hello? Anyone?"

"Spike," Buffy breathed. It wasn't a question. She would know that voice anywhere.

"Buffy."

A smiled forced its way across her face as her knees buckled and she dropped into the chair. "Your alive. I thought..."

"I'm alright," Spike smiled at her joy. "Although, you should know better than anyone that I'm not alive."

Buffy laughed. The sound shocked not only her friends, but Buffy herself. How long had it been since she had laughed?

Xander tried to take the phone but Willow held up her hand to stop him. He looked at her, puzzled. 'Leave her,' she mouthed.

"I'm sorry I kept you waiting, love," Spike apologised. "It was harder to get to a working phone than I thought it would be."

"But you're alright?" Buffy checking.

"I'm fine. Better than fine, now that I'm speaking to you."

"What happened? Where are you?"

"LA was a demon war zone. We could've used your help, love. Slaying everyday, breathing in the death and drinking the blood of the dead."

"Spike!" snapped and outraged Buffy.

"Vampire," Spike reminded her. "Anyway after a while, most of the demons gave up or were killed or sent back to some hell dimension. Angel and the others can handle it without me."

"What do you mean? Where are you, Spike? What's going on?" Buffy queried, confused.

"Angel lent me Cordy and I rode her across-"

"You what!" roared Buffy. "Cordelia! But you said-"

"Not Cordelia Chase," Spike sniggered. "Angel's dragon, Cordelia."

"Angel's got a dragon?" repeated Buffy. Then realising the more bizarre point, clarified: "He named it Cordelia?"

"I know," laughed Spike. "She'd be thrilled! So, back to the point, it turns out that Cordelia has always wanted to see Scotland."

"What? Spike, what are you saying?"

"Turn around," he ordered. Except, Buffy didn't hear Spike's voice through the phone.

Her hair whipped around but her eyes remained on the floor. She was scared to look up.

There were a mixture of gasps, screams and orders, all of which were quickly hushed by Willow.

Buffy's eyes remained on the floor.

A pair of shoes stepped into her view followed by a swish of a long leather coat.

One finger was placed under Buffy's chin and slowly lifted her head up.

Spike.

The bleach in his hair had faded slightly and contained flecks of dried blood. A fresh scar had been drawn across his cheek from a point just beside his nose to the edge of his face. His t-shirt was covered in droplets of blood and was ripped at the shoulder and around the hem.

"Is it really you?" Buffy whispered.

Spike nodded.

Unsure of herself, Buffy raised her hand to his head and stroked it through his hair, down his cheek, to his lips where three of her fingers settled.

"You're...you're really here?"

"I am, love."

Without wasting another moment, Buffy stood on her tiptoes and touched her lips to his.

It was like dropping into a cloud and floating away. She was flying, soaring through an endless sky, somersaulting.

"Spike..." Buffy couldn't put her feelings into words. "I-I-I..." she struggled.

The vampire placed a finger on the Slayer's lips. "Buffy, I know. It's the same for me too."

"Spike?" Dawn asked from across the room, still unable to believe her eyes.

"It's me, Niblet." He extended his arms to her and, like a child, she ran into them, without a second's thought.

"How did you..?" The question didn't need to be finished.

"That's a very long, very complicated story that I would very much like recite after I've had a glass of blood."

As he finished the last word, every slayer in the room - save for Buffy - pulled out a stake or a crossbow or another vampire-fighting weapon and pointed it at Spike.

Immediately, Dawn put herself between the weapons and the vampire.

"Stand down," Buffy commanded.

"But, Buf-" protested Xander.

"No," she ordered, before he could finish. "Becky, fetch some blood from the medical supplies and heat it to 37.5 degrees precisely. Spike is here as a friend."

"I think he wants more than friendship," Xander murmured.

As the various stakes were lowered, Spike grinned at Xander and gave him a slight wink.

Dawn took Spike's hand and began to lead him towards the seats at Buffy's desk.

"Jesus, if I can get through their crap defences, do they really think that a couple of stakes can stop me?" Spike said unhelpfully. "I've taken down two slayers and been to three versions of hell and back."

"Really?" queried Dawn.

"Well, there was actual hell. Then there was LA which, trust me, can be even worse."

"And the third?"

"I spent nearly a hundred years with Angel. Even before he got his soul, he spent the majority of his time brooding. Bloody hell, he knows how to ruin a bloodbath!"

Dawn laughed and Buffy, to her amazement, found herself joining in.

"Love," Spike continued to Buffy, "You really ought to tighten your defences. I walked right through the front door and not a single one of the alarms went off."

"They weren't supposed to." He looked at her quizzically. "Demons don't have souls, so I suggested that we build our defences based around a soul detector. Willow and Xander made it. It seems that magic and mechanics work pretty well together."

"Still, there are one or two demons that might be able to slip past. Wouldn't it have been better to-"

"I wanted the base to be open to you. Souls don't define good and evil. There are human murderers and helpful demons. You didn't need a soul to fall in love. That's just Angel."

"Buffy," Spike whispered, "I don't want you to put yourself at risk for me. You mustn't get hurt. I'd die to protect you. I did."

"And don't you think that I would do the same? For months, I wished more than anything that I had worn that amulet, or that I'd just let Angel wear it. I can't lose you again."

"You won't, Buffy. I promise."

Delicately, Spike slid his hand into hers and squeezed it tight. "I'm right here. I always will be."

"But you left once before," whispered Buffy, doubt filling her voice.

"And I never will again. Not now that I've found you. I will never let you go."

* * *

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 **Indigofrog**


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